LITTLE ROCK — A May 11 hearing was set Friday to determine the amount of restitution that former Russellville physician Randeep Mann must pay for orchestrating an explosion that injured Dr. Trent Pierce.
The hearing will be at 2 p.m. in the Little Rock courtroom of U.S. District Judge Brian S. Miller.
On Friday, Miller ordered the parties to submit pre-hearing briefs on the restitution issue, with the U.S. attorneys’ brief due by April 22 and the defense attorneys’ brief due by April 29.
Mann, 53, was sentenced Feb. 28 to life in prison in connection with the Feb. 4, 2009, explosion outside Pierce’s West Memphis home that left Pierce blind in one eye, partially deaf and with a damaged sense of smell, among other injuries.
Prosecutors said Mann arranged for someone else, who hasn’t been identified, to plant a grenade near Pierce’s vehicle as retaliation for Pierce’s attempts, as director of the Arkansas State Medical Board, to strip Mann of his medical license.
Mann had been repeatedly investigated and disciplined by the board for improperly prescribing narcotics to several patients who died from overdoses, according to court records.
Miller ordered Mann to pay a $100,000 fine, and Mann’s wife, Sangeeta Mann, 49, to serve a year in prison and pay a $50,000 fine for obstructing a federal investigation into her husband’s activities.
The restitution issue wasn’t decided at the sentencing hearing because defense attorneys demanded that prosecutors justify the $1.7 million in restitution they are seeking.
Sangeeta Mann, who remains free while appealing her conviction and sentence, filed for divorce from her husband of 27 years last week. She is asking a judge to divide the couple’s marital property.
Arkansas, Pages 12 on 04/09/2011